The present invention relates to a content reproduction apparatus, a content recording apparatus, a network system, and a content recording/reproduction method, each of which is responsible to a network.
In recent years, implementation of network-responsible AV (Audio Visual) equipment such as a DTV (Digital Television) and a HDD/DVD-incorporating recorder is in progress. Majority of these network-responsible AV equipment can handle program reservation, remote control, and the like from PCs (Personal Computers) via a network.
Further, in a network-responsible recorder having a built-in MPEG2 encoder, content recorded thereon is encoded into MPEG2 streams at a compression rate suitable for transfer through a network, and then transferred to a PC, AV equipment having a content reproduction function, or the like which is connected to the recorder through the network, so that the content can be reproduced. See, Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 2002-112220.
However, a series of functions ranging from the external input and broadcast reception to the recording of streams of content is generally carried out by a recorder. Therefore, if the number of programs for simultaneous recording is to be increased or if a new broadcasting format should be handled, a recorder must be newly added. Further, where the total recording capacity of a plurality of recorders is to be increased, storages such as hard disk drives within the individual recorders must be replaced with ones with a larger capacity.
Furthermore, generally, no limitation by, e.g., the proprietary right could be imposed on reproduction of respective content recorded on a recorder. Therefore, where the recorder is shared among a plurality of PCs or AV equipment having a content reproduction function on a network as their content recording section, there has been a security problem that the recorded content could inadvertently be viewed/reproduced by any of the equipment.